Tag Archives: ancestry
Reverend Thomas Harrison
In 1803, Reverend Thomas Harrison, grandfather of Theopolis, arrived in Illinois, and unknown wilderness. Ten years later he built a cotton gin, the beginning of a very successful milling business. Harrison, who migrated from N. Carolina, was of Scot-Irish descent. He had 10 children. By 1831 the Harrisons built the first steam operated mill in the state. The mill, at the west end of Main Street on Richland Creek, burned down and was rebuilt. By 1844, Harrison Mills reported annual [...]
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Simon Eimer
Simon Eimer became one of the wealthiest industrialists of his day — a biographer states: “Eimer was prominent in every activity good for a city”. He arrived in 1844. In 1848, he built a bath house, followed by an entertainment park south of the Public Square and a hall on West Main Street. He served as a member of the Board of Education. As an alderman, he was appointed to a committee to plan for a new Market Square, a [...]
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Simion Bunn
Simion Bunn, a foundryman from Pennsylvania, was a bricklayer in his youth. He became a furnace builder for Belleville Steel Co. which operated two mills in the city — Valley Mill and West Mill. In 1871 Bunn patented a Puddling Furnace and in 1886 a “double-decker” Nail Plate Furnace. His sons followed him in the stove and foundry industries of Belleville. Simion enjoyed and worked at a long career. At the age of 65 he was still installing furnaces. In [...]
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Genealogy Family Interest
While your fascination (or addiction) with tracing your family tree is very important to you, getting the rest of your family involved and excited about your ancestry is not always an easy feat. I know that I have spent a ridiculous amount of time researching my family tree and feel this great connection to my ancestors, while others in my family really just aren’t that interested. Not that they don’t like to hear family stories or see pictures, but the [...]
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Belleville Illinois – Founding Fathers
The city of Belleville, Illinois was founded in 1814. It is the county seat of St. Clair County and is the eighth most populated city in Illinois outside of the Chicago Metropolitan area. There have been many influential men who have contributed to the building and growth of this city. Here, we find many of them in photo’s from the Labor and History Museum and the Belleville Public Library. As you trace your family tree, finding photographs can be very [...]
